A new way to shop -- discounted Gift Cards

   Thanks to our daughter in law Dawn we have discovered discount gift cards. We heard of these cards but never paid any attention about them. These are cards sold to a discount gift card buying site at a discount from folks who do not want them for various reasons. The number one reason is they receive them as a gift and do not want them. They sell them at a lesser discount then they are resold  to buyers like us.Then the discount site resells them at a discount price. The discounts range from 1 to 15%.  The site I like best is cardpool . There are many more sites.
     We signed up and purchased several different cards so far. We have purchased a Darden Restaurants card (Red Lobster - Olive Garden + several others) at a 12% discount. So upon using the card we saved 12% on the total bill. Plus we used a credit card when we purchased the discounted card, were we received a 1% rebate, so our total savings was 13%  . We also purchased and used a Wal-Mart card, 2% discount, Barnes and Noble card, 12% discount,  Lowe's, 10%, plus several others. So now we are hooked.
     The only disadvantage to these cards is you have to buy them in advance. So you need to plan ahead. But if you know sometime in the future you are going to eat at Red lobster or shop at Kohl's you have to buy  the card ahead of time. Some cards you can get electronically, so you can use them instantly. The cards change daily or quicker. The discounts vary. Not every store or restaurant is available. But by buying the cards that we use, we hope we can safe 3 to 5% overall on our spending for the year. That doesn't sound like much, but figure how much you spend in a year and discount it by 3-5% all see how much you can save. That's 2 or 3 times the interest you receive on bank CD's.
   A PS, if you sign up with cardpool give them our email address and we will receive a $5.  credit on our account the first time you order something from them.
   Thanks for following along. I know I used the word discount so many times that this blog may be a little confusing.